Working with Parents Makes Therapy Work

by Kerry Kelly Novick, Jack Novick

Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work demonstrates the crucial role of parent work in child and adolescent therapy. The Novicks suggest that restoring the parent-child relationship contributes to long-lasting therapeutic change in children and adolescents. With a multitude of vivid clinical examples, the authors provide a practical guide to clinical techniques for integrating parent work with individual child and adolescent treatment.
Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work demonstrates that parents and therapists can form a strong alliance to support the child's healthy development. Kerry and Jack Novick apply their revised models of the therapeutic alliance and two systems of self-regulation to help parents from evaluation to termination and beyond.
The book covers a wide range of situations, for instance, work with fathers, addressing problems of divorce and diverse family structures, and many modes of communicating with parents. Family secrets and loyalty conflicts; what happens when parents are troubled; the importance of parents in the lives of teenagers-these are all discussed in detail. Privacy and secrecy are defined and differentiated to clarify the meaning and importance of genuine confidentiality.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2005

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best depiction I’ve encountered on how to effectively engage parents in therapy of their children. Much of it was reflective of my 15 years in clinical practice with many new ideas for me. The only downfall is this approach may be unattainable for many families and in some practices. I wish there was more on how to handle the less than ideal scenarios.